Attitude, Belief and Support
The goal is not to live forever, nor to return to an old place, but rather to transform ourselves into healthy people, utterly at peace with ourselves, our families and our friends. Create a tradition of peacefulness:
- Feel gratitude.
- Forgive yourself, lighten up, and loosen your grip. Find some humor in your situation.
- Watch comedies.
- Connect to others, don’t try to keep everything internal. Cultivate relationships with those who support your healing process and your medical choices.
- Be aware of whether someone is being helpful or not—and if not, find a way to marginalize and ignore them.
- Develop an immune-competent personality, monitoring and taking care of your own needs, and resisting becoming a self-sacrificing martyr.
- Reduce your anger, stress and anxiety.
- Don’t do anything you hate doing—if it’s something that you have to do, find a way to re-frame it so that you’re not flooding your system with stress hormones.
- Use your illness as a teacher—what can it tell you about medicine, about compassion for yourself and others, and about how to care for yourself?
- An illness is a terrible thing, but with the right attitude it might be a benefit—and it might wind up being the best thing that ever happened to you.
- Find your true talent, discover your purpose in life. Why have we been put here?
Resources:
Man’s Search for Meaning
by Viktor E. Frankl
The Body Keeps the Score: Brain, Mind and Body in the Healing of Trauma
by Bessel Van Der Kolk
www.besselvanderkolk.com
A General Theory of Love
by Thomas Lewis, Fari Amini, Richard Lannon
www.thomaslewis.com
Close to the Bone: Life-Threatening Illness as a Soul Journey
by Jean Shinoda Bolen
www.jeanbolen.com